Audio Director

Audio Director

Sony Bend Studio, renowned creator of Days Gone, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Syphon Filter, is seeking outstanding talent to join our passionate and creative family in crafting our next high-profile AAA console title.

Following the success of Days Gone, we are seeking an Audio Director to join our in-house sound team as we raise the bar even higher and create world-class audio content for 1^st party product development projects. As part of our team, you will have the opportunity to work with some of the most respected developers in the industry and on exciting AAA games for PlayStation.

You will bring passion to the role of Audio Director, collaborating with sound and development teams, directing and creating sonically rich, high-quality AAA audio. Your primary focus will be on sound design, music scoring, systems design and implementation.

Responsibilities:

• Directing and Designing immersive and rich soundscapes to engage players and drive game narrative.
• Implementation and authoring of interactive, real-time sound using proprietary, middleware and scripting tools to bring soundscapes to life.
• Recording real-world sounds, creating and editing new sound effects using various recording techniques, professional audio editing tools, hardware and props.
• Collaborating with in-house and off-site sound teams and programmers.
• Sound Design and mixing of cinematic content in multiple formats and specifications.
• Create and establish the audio vision, both artistic and technical, based on the creative direction of the project.
• Communicate the audio vision to the team and provide all necessary visual and audio documents and references needed
• Proven professional experience w/ actor and voice actor casting, auditions and directing of performance talent.
• Provide direction and coordination of audio shoot sequences, such as a weapons or vehicle audio capture session.
• Provide localization voice audio direction, management of assets and coordination of global localization audio teams.
• Directing a team of sound designers, specifically able to direct, manage quality and delegation of assignment across an external worldwide team of sound designers and musicians living in different time zones.
• Provide audio direction documentation, planning and communication to Studio and Creative Leadership, including providing presentation quality level documents for product ideation and technological advancements in audio.
• Maintain awareness of audio advancements both from a composition and technology basis, with thorough understanding of latest advancements in audio production tools.
• Represent the Studio and body of work for projects by providing professional talks and presentations at both internal and external conferences.
• Must have an affinity and continued strive towards excellence in audio and very specifically towards realistic, real-world audio designs.

Requirements:

• At least one shipped AAA title.
• 5+ years of professional experience, with at least 3-5 years as a Sound Designer for video games.
• Mastery in DAW (ProTools, Reaper, Nuendo, Cubase)
• Great communication skills and a team-focused mindset.
• Understanding emotion and tension in storytelling and be able to tell a story through sound.
• Imaginative and creative use of audio production tools, foley performance and capture, props, and recording techniques to create high quality original content.
• Fluent in interactive audio and post production techniques.
• Expert command of sound design & mixing techniques, processes and tools.
• Ability to create world-class audio content spread across multiple styles and genres.
• Solid understanding of recording techniques, microphone placement and having the ability to direct talent.
• In-Depth knowledge with authoring techniques utilizing a combination of proprietary tools and middleware solutions.
• A grasp of logic and simple scripting methods for interactive audio implementation within a game engine.
• Experience working with other departments (Animation, Design, Engineering, AI, UI etc.) and understanding their workflow.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively, under pressure and to tight deadlines.
• An aptitude for keeping up to date on current market trends and emerging audio design advances.
• Good understanding about technical budgeting of audio for games (CPU, RAM, disk I/O, etc), and best optimization practices.
• Musical skills as a musician and/or composer and being able to define thematic musical scores working with Composers and Licensees.

Desirable Skills & Experience:

• Experience working on environmental audio, sound propagation and 3D audio
• Technical skills and understanding of audio rendering and compression technologies, and codecs.